Tuesday, March 12, 2013

One Armed Bandit

One arm down, one to go. Today was a long knitting day, but I'm encouraged and feel more confident about finishing before the Red Lantern is extinguished.

I set the sweater out to take a picture and got photo-bombed by Quality Control ;-).

She was very thorough!

So the day started cold and damp. Maisie's gone from being the coldest sheep on the farm to the warmest. She stayed out all day (that's her, the white dot). I had to run the heater a couple times and kept my coffee cup topped off.

There is a funny story behind this mug, one of my favorites. It appeared in our mailbox one day. No note, no clues, no nothing. About a half a year later I was at the license branch renewing our vehicle tags and the clerk asked if I'd gotten the mug.

"Mug?"

"Yeah, I found a sheep coffee cup at a yard sale and thought you might like it, so I stuck it in your mailbox."

I was blown away. My license plate reads BAA. I know we'd talked about horses, but did we talk about the sheep as well? I don't think so. She just made the connection. Little things that make your day. Over and over. I love our little town.

The sun finally came out. As did the crazy Adventure Chickens. Sadly, Maisie's outgrown chasing them. That was always a highlight.

I finished the first sleeve and picked up the stitches for the second one. I've really learned a lot working on this project. I've become a much better knitter and I'm very excited about that. While I had to futz around for a few minutes picking up the stitches the first sleeve, I flew through picking up the second one.

The Iditarod leaders are poised to cross the finish line tonight. I am going to try to channel the moon and stars on my notions bag and put in a few more miles myself.

That is quite a challenge, but you are nothing if not up to it (and more!) Must be all that bottle feeding you did to get warmed up. I cannot believe what a fatty-pie Maisie is! Just goes to show that you are some great lambie mom (not to mention, quite the knitter!)

I've no doubt that the beautiful sweater will get finished in time. You've got all my positive thoughts and support, if it helps at all. I love your quality control. She knows a good thing when she sees it!

Hank, a Pyrenees/Maremma cross, is in charge of farm security with new girl, June, an Anatolian, backing him up and Junior Deputies Miss Tilly aka Weaslie, a Corgi, and Comby, a tough orange cat with a heart of gold. Kate, a Border Collie, handles the rush hour traffic. Iris, our first Border Collie, spent her whole life trying to keep all of us in line, but that was a hard job. Her Corgi sidekick was always underfoot and the Adventure Chickens NEVER did what she wanted.